


Totally not like RoboCop

by Caers



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-18
Updated: 2012-07-18
Packaged: 2017-11-10 06:16:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/463133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caers/pseuds/Caers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ronon wakes up changed.  Not like RoboCop, except how he totally is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Totally not like RoboCop

_We won’t hurt you,_ he hears them say as he sinks to the floor. Whispers in his ear. They don’t even sound real.

Alone, separated from his team. Everything around him shines and glitters before his eyes close.

He’s lifted, gently placed somewhere else. Soft touches on his skin. He can’t move his body, can’t open his eyes, can’t see who’s doing this to him. 

_Be calm,_ they say. _Great warrior. We will make you so much more._

I don’t want to be more, Ronon tries to tell them.

*

“So I’m like RoboCop?” Ronon says when Carson finishes talking.

John looks from Ronon to Rodney, then narrows his eyes at the latter. He pokes him in the chest for good measure. “I can’t believe you!” he cries. “You watched RoboCop with him? Without me?”

Rodney bristles, glancing around at Carson, at Teyla, at Woolsey, as if they can provide him with back up. “You were gone!” he finally says, working up his defence. “You were off on that, that mission, the trade thing, with Teyla.” He points at Teyla, including her in the accusation; she tilts her head at him, as if daring him to blame her for this. Rodney ignores the warning. “You said me and Ronon couldn’t come because we would compromise the mission.”

“So you watched RoboCop without me, instead?” John says before Teyla can voice whatever thought has put that particular look on her face. 

Rodney hesitates, as if he’s contemplating running instead of answering. “Yes?” he settles on. “Look, it’s a terrible film anyway, totally unrealistic, and he’s a clunky, clumsy version of any kind of robot---”

“Oh, because you really strive for realism in your movie choices,” John shoots back. “Yeah, Darkman is absolutely realistic. So is--”

“Darkman could happen!” Rodney cries.

John opens his mouth to argue that point because no, just no, even after all the weird shit they’ve seen out here, NO; but Teyla clears her throat, interrupting.

“John, Rodney, we should focus on the more important matter,” she suggests, indicating Ronan, who is laying in the medical bed watching them with an amused smirk.

John clenches his jaw and glares at Rodney for another moment before turning back to Ronon. “He’s right. You are totally not like RoboCop now, Ronon.”

“I’m part human, part machine,” Ronon states, looking at Carson for confirmation. 

“Aye, lad,” Carson says, nodding. “They’ve embedded hardware in your body and your brain that seems to enhance all of your neural and motor functions. There’s no way I can take it out. You wouldn’t survive.”

“Medical voodoo practitioner that he is,” Rodney says, “I have to agree. However tehy did it, we can’t undo it.”

“So, just like RoboCop,” Ronon decides with finality. “Just better looking.”

“Definitely better looking,” John agrees,and notices several odd looks cast his way. “What!”

“How does that make you feel?” Woolsey asks cautiously.

Ronon looks down at his hands, flexes them; they look normal to John, just like they always have. Ronon just grunts and closes his eyes.

*

John heads back to the medical bay later that night, when he’s sure everyone else is done visiting. He waves to the nurse, who nods, and he walks over to Ronon’s bed.

“It’s cool,” Ronon speaks up. 

It startles John. He’d thought Ronon was asleep. There’s a copy of RoboCop on the table next to the bed, and a portable dvd player. 

“Yeah?” John says, sitting in the chair. He doesn’t need to ask what Ronon’s talking about. There could really only be one subject he’s referring to, after all. “Took your half robot brain this long to figure that out, did it? Not much of an improvement.” Then he curses to himself for saying possibly the most insensitive thing he could say.

Ronon cracks open one eye and lets the corner of his mouth twist in a smile. “Guess not,” he returns. Then he sits up, rolls his shoulder. “I was kinda testing some of the stuff I could do first. You know.” He shrugs.

“Not much you can test, stuck in that bed,” John points out. 

“I can think quicker.” Ronon stares at the cover. “McKay brought me stuff to look at. Most of it I still don’t understand. I guess that hasn’t changed. But what I did understand I processed quicker. My senses are better. Hearing, smell, everything tastes different. Stronger. Teyla helped me with that. I can pick out a lot of the individual ingredients in things. Can smell the components of her incense.”

“That’s, actually kind of cool,” John says. “And it also sucks. I mean, who wants to analyse their food when they’re eating it?”

“Yeah,” Ronon agrees. “I don’t know. Maybe it’ll become a background process.”

“That’s Rodney’s term, right?”

“It seems like a good one.”

“When they let you out of here, I could help you figure out what sort of physical stuff you can do,” John offers. “As long as you don’t completely kick my ass. You’re stuck with Teyla when it comes to the stick fighting though.”

Ronon reaches up and scratches at his scalp, rubs his hand over his shorn head, at the rapidly fading surgical scars still there. “Okay,” he agrees.

John sits in silence for a few minutes, before motioning to the dvd. “So uh, did you want to watch that?”

Ronon pulls the table across the bed and opens up the player. “I was waiting for you,” he says, and presses play. 

*

They still whisper to him.

_Great warrior._

_Fighter above all._

He tries not to listen. He’s learning to relegate things to the back of his mind. Background processes.

He stands on the uppermost spire of Atlantis and stares out over the ocean. But when it’s quiet, when the wind’s died down and the waves are still and the city is mostly asleep, then Ronon hears them with perfect clarity.

_Avenge us._

He’s still trying to find out who they are.


End file.
